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The Range of Interpretation Wolfgang Iser

The Range of Interpretation By Wolfgang Iser

The Range of Interpretation by Wolfgang Iser


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Summary

In this work philosopher Wolfgang Iser offers a fresh perspective on questions such as why do human beings need fictions? And why do human beings need to interpret, despite the fact that complete interpretation is unattainable?

The Range of Interpretation Summary

The Range of Interpretation by Wolfgang Iser

There is a tacit assumption that interpretation comes naturally, that human beings live by constantly interpreting. In this sense, we might even rephrase Descartes by saying: We interpret, therefore we are. While such a basic human disposition makes interpretation appear to come naturally, the forms it takes, however, do not. In this work, Iser offers a fresh approach by formulating an anatomy of interpretation through which we can understand the act of interpretation in its many different manifestations. For Iser, there are several different genres of interpretation, all of which are acts of translation designed to transpose something into something else. Perhaps the most obvious example of interpretation involves canonical texts, such as the Rabbinical exegesis of the Torah or Samuel Johnson's reading of Shakespeare. But what happens when the matter that one seeks to interpret consists not of a text but of a welter of fragments, as in the study of history, or when something is hidden, as in the practice of psychoanalysis, or is as complex as a culture or system? Iser details how, in each of these cases, the space that is opened up by interpretation is negotiated in a different way, thus concluding that interpretation always depends on what it seeks to translate. For students of philosophy, literary and critical theory, anthropology, and cultural history, Iser's elucidation of the mechanics by which we translate and understand, as well as his assessment of the anthropological roots of our drive to make meaning, will undoubtedly serve as a revelation.

The Range of Interpretation Reviews

[Range of Interpretation] leaves the reader with a greatly expanded understanding of the nature of interpretation, of the various roles it assumes in our culture, and it is difficult to imagine a scholar who would not profit from such a book. Philosophy in Review

About Wolfgang Iser

Wolfgang Iser is professor of comparative literature at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is best known for his works The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett; The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response; Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology; and The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction The Marketplace of Interpretation Interpretation as Translatability 2. The Authority of the Canon Canonization and Midrash The Literary Canon: Dr. Johnson on Shakespeare 3. The Hermeneutic Circle Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher: Self-reflective Circularity Johann Gustav Droysen: The Nesting of Circles Paul Ricoeur: Transactional Loops 4. The Recursive Loop Recursion in Ethnographic Discourse Systemic Recursion 5. The Traveling Differential: Franz Rosenzweig, The Star of Redemption The Birth of the Elements Out of the Somber Foundations of Nought Proliferating Translatability 6. Configurations of Interpretation: An Epilogue

Additional information

GOR002060243
9780231133203
0231133200
The Range of Interpretation by Wolfgang Iser
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Columbia University Press
20010918
280
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Range of Interpretation